Janmabhumi reported that Siddique Kappan ordered the killing of BJP leaders in the terrorist camp organized by the Popular Front of India (PFI) at Manjeri Green Valley Academy in September 2020. Kappan is an accused in the Hathras riot conspiracy case and hails from Kozhikode, Kerala.
PFI Commander KP Kamal, who is in Lucknow jail in the Hathras riot conspiracy case, confirmed Kappan’s role. Kamal was also one of the PFI’s top five members. NIA interrogation of PFI Hit Squad coaches Anshad Badruddin and Firoz Khan endorsed Kappan’s part. Badruddin, a martial arts trainer, was Kappan’s Delhi roommate, and Firoz Khan, an expert bomb maker.
Kappan was an active member of the PFI and was involved in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that eventually led to the February 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. Kappan specialized in reporting only to incite Muslims.
He was arrested in October 2020 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA) while on his way to Hathras District in Uttar Pradesh but was released on bail in February 2023. PFI had plans to arrange violent protests surrounding the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras. Kappan spearheaded those efforts.
In Hathras, an SC (Scheduled Caste) Valmiki girl allegedly in a relationship with a GC (General Category) Thakur boy was strangled to death, and later rape charges were levelled at the boy and his relatives. In March 2023, a special court in Hathras convicted one person and acquitted three others of all charges in the 2020 Hathras rape and murder case.
Earlier, HinduPost reported how Manjeri Green Valley Academy was closed after an NIA raid. Green Valley Academy was the PFI’s terrorist training headquarters. In July 2023, the NIA attached what it termed as one of the “largest arms and martial training” facilities owned by the PFI in Kerala. This alleged terrorist hiding facility was spread over 10 hectares of land at Manjeri in Malappuram and was PFI’s biggest weapons training centre. It was earlier used by National Development Front cadres, who later joined the PFI.
Large-scale anti-Hindu riots broke out in Delhi on 24 and 25 February 2020. These riots were the result of animosity, hatred, and rage that were generated by radical Islamist rallies against the CAA in Shaheen Bagh and other localities. Over 200 individuals were hurt, and 53 people died in the violence.
During the North Delhi riots, Hindus were being massacred according to the PFI plan. Even the Delhi Police was angry at the planned attack by the Muslims. The well-thought-out and skillfully performed acts of brutal and gruesome street violence by the Islamist mobs enraged even the Delhi Police.
Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma led the Jat and Gujjar armed groups from Haryana to chase away the Muslims. The Jat Gujjar gangs managed what the Delhi Police could not, and the violence subsided. Enraged, Kappan allegedly called on his fellow terror conspirators to kill BJP leaders Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma, who led the Hindu counterattack in the North Delhi riots.
During the Green Valley Academy meeting, Badruddin and Khan were instructed to prepare a plan to kill the BJP leaders who defeated the PFI riot plans. Accordingly, they went to Delhi along with Kappan and stayed together at the National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO) office.
Meanwhile, Kappan and Campus Front leaders left for the Hathras riots in one car and Badruddin and Feroze Khan in another. Badruddin and Khan returned to Delhi and later to Kerala after learning that Kappan and his gang had been captured. Four months later, Badruddin and Khan, who came to Lucknow with explosives and guns to carry out blasts in UP, were caught by the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
KP Kamal absconded immediately after Kappan was arrested. After two years in hiding, he was arrested by the UP police from Malappuram, Kerala. Kamal was the commander of the PFI hit squads and a fund distributor. Kamal is also related to Badruddin, from Lucknow.
After Kappan’s arrest, UP police found Kamal’s audio recording of a secret meeting to unleash violence. Police found that Kappan had dialled Kamal’s number several times during the Hathras protests. A voice note using code words was used to arrange a secret meeting. The PFI terrorist was arrested based on these voice recordings found in Kappan’s mobile devices.
When the NIA interrogated him in the Lucknow jail, Kamal revealed the terrorist attacks they had planned at the Manjeri Green Valley camp. Badruddin and Khan had earlier confessed in their statement to the magistrate that Kappan had instructed them to kill the BJP leaders.
They also admitted that Kappan, a PFI’ think tank’, had chosen hit squad members and trained them separately. Although Kappan claimed he was a ‘journalist’ and got bail, Kamal, Badaruddin, and Khan are still lodged in Lucknow jail. Many consider Kappan a terrorist working for his Middle Eastern paymasters, who infiltrated the contentious Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ).
The role of Kamal, Badruddin and Khan in the Hathras riot conspiracy came to light when the UP police interrogated Kappan and checked the phone records. Rauf Sharif, the campus front leader arrested by the UP police, was recently granted bail. Sharif sent the money from Qatar for the Hathras insurgency project.
Sharif was PFI’s National Secretary of its youth wing, the Campus Front, and a qualified Chartered Accountant. He tried to flee the country but was nabbed from the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. Sharif was evading an Enforcement Directorate (ED) enquiry into a money-laundering network after it was found that huge amounts were being transacted through his bank accounts from suspicious foreign accounts.
Earlier this month, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Masood Ahmed, another co-accused. Ahmed accompanied Kappan in the same car on his way to Hathras and was apprehended along with Kappan. A special NIA court in Lucknow refused Ahmed’s bail in December 2022. He filed a challenge against the order with the Allahabad High Court.
The UP government’s Additional Advocate General, Shiv Nath Tilhari, stated that Ahmed’s affiliation with the PFI was why the special court denied his bail request. Shiv added that the group was aiming to sow discord by inciting caste and religious hatred as well as engaging in terrorist acts within the nation.
In its ruling, a bench led by Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi stated that Ahmed had been detained since 5 October 2020 and that the other defendants had been given bail. The NIA special court failed to take into account the material on record. Nonetheless, the High Court made no remarks regarding the case’s merits.
In September 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) banned the radical PFI outfit. It came close on the heels of a countrywide raid on 22 September when the NIA arrested 109 masterminds of the terror outfit. Affiliated groups such as the National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala were found to be “unlawful associations, and they too were banned.
The PFI leaders monitored and coordinated these associates, affiliates, or fronts. They functioned as ‘roots and capillaries’ through which the PFI was fed and strengthened.
As part of a well-planned criminal conspiracy, the PFI’s office bearers and cadres conspired with others to raise money from both domestic and foreign sources through banking channels, hawala, donations, and other means. These funds were then transferred, layered, and integrated through multiple accounts to give the impression that they are legitimate, and they are ultimately used to carry out various criminal, unlawful, and terrorist activities in India, according to the MHA.
